By Lewis Jackson and Lucy Craymer
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Kim Dotcom, who’s going through felony costs regarding the defunct file-sharing web site Megaupload, can be extradited to the USA from New Zealand, the New Zealand justice minister stated on Thursday.
German-born Dotcom, who has New Zealand residency, has been preventing extradition to the USA since 2012 following a FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith signed an extradition order for Dotcom, a spokesperson for the Minister of Justice stated
“I considered all of the information carefully, and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the U.S. to face trial,” Goldsmith stated in a press release.
“As is common practice, I have allowed Mr Dotcom a short period of time to consider and take advice on my decision. I will not, therefore, be commenting further at this stage.”
In a put up on social media web site X on Tuesday, Dotcom stated “the obedient US colony in the South Pacific just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload”, in what seems to be a reference to the extradition order.
Reuters couldn’t instantly contact Dotcom for a response.
U.S. authorities say Dotcom and three different Megaupload executives price movie studios and report firms greater than $500 million by encouraging paying customers to retailer and share copyrighted materials, which generated greater than $175 million in income for the web site.
The corporate’s chief advertising officer Finn Batato and chief technical officer and co-founder Mathias Ortmann, each from Germany, together with a 3rd govt Dutch nationwide Bram van der Kolk had been arrested with Dotcom in 2012.
Ortmann and van der Kolk entered plea offers that noticed them sentenced in 2023 to jail phrases in New Zealand however allowed them to keep away from extradition. Batato died in 2022 in New Zealand.
